Compensation of 1 lakh for Palamu cash queue death

RANCHI: Chief minister Raghubar Das on Friday announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 1 lakh to the next of kin of senior citizen Ramchandra Paswan, who died while standing in a queue at the Mohammadganj branch of the State Bank of India in Palamu on Wednesday. A resident of Kandi village in Garhwa, the septuagenarian collapsed while waiting in a queue to draw his pension.
Taking a serious note of the incident, the chief minister directed all banks to make sure they handled customers efficiently and had enough cash for disposal.
"We have taken immediate steps to ensure cash flow is not restricted," said Das, adding that helicopters have been used to ferry money from the RBI office in Patna to Ranchi, Bokaro and Jamshedpur.
"Even on Thursday we used a chopper to bring Rs 500 notes from Patna. These notes are being distributed," he said.
The chief minister said there are 102 villages in the state with a population of more than 5,000 people but they have no access to banks. "The civil and police administration along with the head district bank should ensure mobile currency dispensing units are formed," he said.
Instructions have been issued to branches of banks in rural areas to dispense money to women self-help groups exclusively on Tuesdays between 10 am and noon. The cash handling limit of banking correspondents have been increased to Rs 50,000. Instructions have been issued to banks to visit the military cantonment and camps of CPMF to exchange currencies.
Das's announcement comes a day after the opposition ridiculed the BJP government at the Centre for the manner in which the currency withdrawal was effected. The winter session saw uproarious scenes with the leader of the opposition demanding martyr status for those who died waiting in queues to exchange and withdraw money.